Strings Magazine: A String Player's Guide to New York City
Even the most jaded New Yorkers cherish iconic New York City moments—walking in Central Park, sitting by the Lincoln Center fountain, savoring a pizza at Grimaldi’s. But the reason string players love Gotham goes further, to its constant embrace of new experiences—performance venues, chamber ensembles, jam sessions. Here are some of the myriad venues, ensembles, restaurants, and cultural institutions that make this musical city great.
Strings Magazine
By Brian Wise
Even the most jaded New Yorkers cherish iconic New York City moments—walking in Central Park, sitting by the Lincoln Center fountain, savoring a pizza at Grimaldi’s. But the reason string players love Gotham goes further, to its constant embrace of new experiences—performance venues, chamber ensembles, jam sessions. Here are some of the myriad venues, ensembles, restaurants, and cultural institutions that make this musical city great.
Read more here.
Photo: Stephan Kelle
Bachtrack: Bach and Mendelssohn: Jennifer Koh and Vijay Iyer in a wintry Sun Valley
A festival appearance in Sun Valley, Idaho, put violinist Jennifer Koh in a number of spotlights over the long weekend of 24th-26th February. She served as curator for the winter Sun Valley Music Festival, crafting a program that repeated (with slight variation) in each of the four concerts, spanning centuries and celebrating a return to coming together in a common space.
Bachtrack
By Kurt Gottschalk
A festival appearance in Sun Valley, Idaho, put violinist Jennifer Koh in a number of spotlights over the long weekend of 24th-26th February. She served as curator for the winter Sun Valley Music Festival, crafting a program that repeated (with slight variation) in each of the four concerts, spanning centuries and celebrating a return to coming together in a common space. She also featured several of her own commissions and was featured soloist for the series.
That common space was a black box theater in the Argyros Performing Arts Center in the small town of Ketchum, a new and flexible room (opened in 2018) with beautiful lighting design and outfitted with a Meyer Constellation Acoustic System.
Read more here.
The Columbian: Guitarist returns to play with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Although the pandemic may have slowed down some musicians, Adam Levin stayed as busy as ever. For one thing, the virtuoso guitarist, who will perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra this weekend, is now the proud father of a 10-month-old son.
The Columbian
By James Bash
Adam Levin to perform Rodrigo’s Spanish concerto
Although the pandemic may have slowed down some musicians, Adam Levin stayed as busy as ever. For one thing, the virtuoso guitarist, who will perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra this weekend, is now the proud father of a 10-month-old son.
Read more here.
Strings Magazine: The Savannah and Sun Valley Music Festivals Ready the Stage for Live Concerts
As the largest admission-free classical music festival in the United States, Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival promises this year’s attendees a “massive orchestral repertoire as vast as Sun Valley’s mountainous setting.”
That’s a lofty promise but given the festival’s 37-year performance record, it’s a commitment that seems achievable over the three-week event. Kicking off in late July, the festival offers 14 concerts, a gala fundraising concert, and multiple educational events.
Strings Magazine
By Karen Peterson
Sun Valley Music Festival
As the largest admission-free classical music festival in the United States, Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival promises this year’s attendees a “massive orchestral repertoire as vast as Sun Valley’s mountainous setting.”
That’s a lofty promise but given the festival’s 37-year performance record, it’s a commitment that seems achievable over the three-week event. Kicking off in late July, the festival offers 14 concerts, a gala fundraising concert, and multiple educational events.
Read more here.
Gramophone: Video: 'Music Without Borders', with Yo-Yo Ma, Long Yu and Michael Stern
On January 21, 2022, the sixth annual Youth Music Culture Guangdong (YMCG) hosted a gathering of musician friends for a virtual panel called 'Music Without Borders: Musicians and Music for the Present and the Future,' led by host Zhai Jia.
Gramophone
In a fascinating discussion Yo-Yo Ma, Long Yu and Michael Stern reflect on the meaning of music creation, performance, and listening
On January 21, 2022, the sixth annual Youth Music Culture Guangdong (YMCG) hosted a gathering of musician friends for a virtual panel called 'Music Without Borders: Musicians and Music for the Present and the Future,' led by host Zhai Jia.
With renowned guests joining from four cities across the world – Yo-Yo Ma in Boston; Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra (GSO) Music Director and Chairman of the YMCG Artistic Committee Long Yu in a quarantine hotel; celebrated conductor Michael Stern in Kansas City; and members of the YMCG Orchestra, GSO President Mr Chen Qing, conductor Jing Huan, and others in Guangzhou – the discussion centres around the meaning of music creation, performance, and listening.
Read more here.
BBC In Tune: Nicolas Namoradze
Honens International Piano Competition Laureate Nicolas Namoradze joins Sean Rafferty on BBC In-Tune ahead of his performance at the Royal Orchestra Hall. Live in the studio he gives a performance of the Sarabande and Minuet from Bach’s French Suite No. 1 in D minor, and the second movement of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 1 in D minor.
BBC In Tune
Honens International Piano Competition Laureate Nicolas Namoradze joins Sean Rafferty on BBC In-Tune ahead of his performance at the Royal Orchestra Hall. Live in the studio he gives a performance of the Sarabande and Minuet from Bach’s French Suite No. 1 in D minor, and the second movement of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 1 in D minor.
Listen here until March 19, beginning at 16:05.
Blogcritics: Exclusive Interview: Conductor Gerard Schwarz on World Premiere of Michael Dellaira Opera ‘The Leopard’ with Frost Opera and Symphony
World-renowned conductor Gerard Schwarz has presented concert music and operas all over the world and made hundreds of recordings. Marking his 70th birthday in 2017, Naxos released a 30-CD retrospective of his half-century recording career. But neither age nor pandemic has slowed him down.
Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel
World-renowned conductor Gerard Schwarz has presented concert music and operas all over the world and made hundreds of recordings. Marking his 70th birthday in 2017, Naxos released a 30-CD retrospective of his half-century recording career. But neither age nor pandemic has slowed him down.
Read more here.
Vail Daily: Bravo! Vail announces 2022 summer schedule
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival announced its 35th Festival season with a celebration and concert at Donovan Pavilion this Thursday. Artistic director Anne Marie McDermott and executive director Caitlin Murray presented the schedule and shared highlights with audience members, before concluding the night with a piano concert performed by McDermott and Bravo! Vail piano fellow Zhu Wang.
Vail Daily
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival announced its 35th Festival season with a celebration and concert at Donovan Pavilion this Thursday. Artistic director Anne Marie McDermott and executive director Caitlin Murray presented the schedule and shared highlights with audience members, before concluding the night with a piano concert performed by McDermott and Bravo! Vail piano fellow Zhu Wang.
Comprised of more than 60 concerts throughout the Vail Valley, the six-week festival showcases four internationally acclaimed resident orchestras — The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic — alongside renowned chamber ensembles and new and familiar voices in composition and artistry.
More info here.
BBC In Tune: Paul Merkelo
Trumpeter Paul Merkelo joined Katie Derham on BBC Radio 3 In-Tune ahead of his performance with the English Chamber Orchestra to chat about the program, performing in the age of COVID, recent recordings, and more. Also included are excerpts from the Haydn, Tomasi, and Hummel trumpet concertos.
BBC In Tune
Trumpeter Paul Merkelo joined Katie Derham on BBC In-Tune ahead of his performance with the English Chamber Orchestra to chat about the program, performing in the age of COVID, recent recordings, and more. Also included are excerpts from the Haydn, Tomasi, and Hummel trumpet concertos.
Listen here until February 20, beginning at 11:00.
The New York Times: Listen to Keyboard Music by Bach (No, Not That One)
The subject of the pianist Marc-André Hamelin’s latest album is Bach — no, not that one.
Hamelin — ever inquisitive in exploring the outer reaches of the repertoire, with recent releases of music by Sigismond Thalberg, Samuil Feinberg and Erno Dohnanyi — has now turned to the extraordinary range of keyboard works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian’s second surviving son.
The New York Times
By David Allen
The subject of the pianist Marc-André Hamelin’s latest album is Bach — no, not that one.
Hamelin — ever inquisitive in exploring the outer reaches of the repertoire, with recent releases of music by Sigismond Thalberg, Samuil Feinberg and Erno Dohnanyi — has now turned to the extraordinary range of keyboard works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian’s second surviving son.
C.P.E. Bach was a prolific composer and an important pedagogue, a significant influence on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. (Hamelin’s new album is a welcome companion to the three volumes of solo Haydn that he set down, with ideal panache, a decade and more ago on the Hyperion label.) But if he was more widely appreciated than his father well into the 19th century, that has certainly not been the case more recently.
Read more here.